The Provensen and the Art of Collaboration

Most people feel that great art can only be created when it is the unique effort of a single individual. But the work of Alice and Martin Provensen proves otherwise.Both artists came from a background in animation - he from Disney and she from Walter (Woody Woodpecker) Lantz - and this seems to have given them an appreciation for the value of artistic collaboration.

"If you weren't satisfied with a drawing and didn't know what to do next," Alice said in an interview for Publisher's Weekly, "the other person could help you along. Of course, it had to be the right person, one who understood what you were trying for."

Over time, the Provensens' styles became so seemlessly integrated that it was impossible to tell where the efforts of the one artist ended and the other's began."You see," says Alice in that same interview, "we were a true collaboration. Martin and I really were one artist."


* Today's image can be seen at full size in my Alice & Martin Provensen Flickr set.